Never, Never, Never, Never

Give Up.

Shades of Winston Churchill (who met with his Ambassador grandfather) Joseph Kennedy at the Kennedy Library in Boston eulogized his uncle and repeated the inspirational hope filled encouragement. Never, never, never, never give up. Never give up when fighting for the good, the right, the true- when you see someone in need, never give up trying to help them and make a better place. Never give up praying, never give up fighting, never give up hoping. Never give up trying. He died with his boots on trying.
Hope is in their genes. The Kennedy Family- plagued with more than most could bear and many a fine man has cracked under the weight - the Kennedys not only survive but thrive and flourish taking us all to a higher level. What a testament to the power of Faith and the Eucharist.

If you were born to privilege with your father once considered one of the the wealthiest men in America, with a brother who was President, what would you do in their honor? What would you do to make your mark on the world? Double the wealth? Buy up cities and towns? Start industries? Buy a private island and hide like a recluse there?

Ted Kennedy transformed government for the people by his people, was a standard bearer for the country, and the way we think about it. He survived two assassinations, a plane crash that literally broke his back, family scandals involving allegations of murder and rape, cancer of his children, death of a beloved nephew and his wife, family drug abuse overdose and addictions, a spattering of mental illness, and a divorce. Crumble? Hide? No-he prayed harder, dug deeper and more determined in his belief of redemption he just kept getting up every day and tried harder to give back and give back big and make a bigger difference.

Every piece of legislation from the Family Medical Leave Act, to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to the Americans with Disabilities Act to the recent bill taking away the stigma on mental health treatment co-sponsored and authored with his brave son Patrick and some 300 other laws he wrote and a thousand others he sponsored make this country a place infinitely fairer, more humane, more kind, more gentle, more Just, and more of the Kingdom Come on earth. The country was a very different place before 1962 when Ted Kennedy came to the Senate.

I am particularly infinitely in his debt because these are the statutes I predominantly relied upon in a plaintiff's litigation practice for over a decade. I am also infinitely grateful because he has been in the Senate all but 2 years of my entire life trying to make a difference.

He was a man who obviously loved large. Each of his whole family carries a piece of him. His son and grandson who bear his name have a hero saint to live up to. He kept a family together and from falling apart. Lesser folks would have run for the hills not for office.

People old enough to remember know he helped paved the way that dissolved segregation and fought a war on Poverty. African Americans know that without the tenacious persistent drive of the Kennedys the many injustices that existed prior to the civil rights and equal rights for women movements would have been much harder to overcome. He was a fighting friend of the poor, the outcast and the downtrodden. He was a friend of the Lord.

He was to many a very present help in time of need. He was a man of peace whose finest vote he considered the one against going into Iraq.

I stood today as his casket passed behind the Capital with the anonymous huddled masses. I nearly passed out just before the hearse passed so had to step back on the grass, lower my head and stop the dizziness the emotion and standing in sun so long overcame me. I have been choked up for days and wonder why I can't stop watching the coverage.

Maybe I connected with him because my Dad sailed and taught us how. Or maybe because I also lived as Irish in London, England for years in my youth, we summered at the Cape and the Vineyard when I was little, my uncle Mike played football with him at Harvard, he met my Dad, and I ran into him at Church. I don't know exactly why I feel connected to him but I loved this Senator from a distance with all the respect that a lawyer (exactly his daughter's age) could ever have for a Hero from a distance. If Ted Kennedy can keep going, I can. So can you.

He's probably tossing a football now with his older brothers in Heaven and everywhere on earth as it is in Heaven--Irish eyes are smiling.
Ted Kennedy- pray for us all.